Welcome to a new
Introducing
How did you get into SEO?
I was at university and working in an insurance broking company as a marketing assistant, and while the people were good, the work was less than ideal. I started making a website for the company and started playing around with integrating salesforce and using customers to help build it. I found such a rush when I saw that people were actually coming to the site through Google! So I started applying for jobs in "digital", not knowing exactly what that meant. But I found a place - Yoghurt Digital - that was 3 directors, a part time developer, and a part time UX, who were looking for a paid search expert. I was NOT that. But they brought me on as an SEO intern, and I fell in love with the challenge. From there, I kept building my skills through online resources and my director, and ended up being a senior member of that SEO team, pushing forward with a content offering and UX/SEM/SEO collaboration.
The TL;DR - The rush of adrenaline from getting a site to rank pushed me five years into SEO.
What is your favourite SEO task?
Rebuilding Information Architecture & Navigation
What is your go-to tool or resource that you can't live without?
Chris Ainsworth's SERP URL Scrape Tool. I know there must be other tools out there that can do this, but none so effective (and ad free!)
What is something you learned in SEO that made you have an 'AHA' moment?
If I can't give people a reason to listen to my recommendation, the recommendation is not worth anything.
What is your proudest industry achievement?
I was nominated for SEMRush Australia awards! I knew my work on those projects was good, and I knew they were award deserving, but I never dreamed it would actually happen!
What advice would you give women who are starting out in SEO?
Learn to be a great fisher-woman. One of the best things about the SEO industry is that it is so collaborative and almost entirely "open source" with resources. Read articles, ask questions, comment on articles you like and ones you have questions about, and most importantly, network with other strong professional women in SEO. No one is going to give you all the tools you need to succeed, so you're going to have to learn how to do that yourself.
Give a shout out to a woman in the industry who inspires you and tell us why
I'd love to give a shout out to Abby Reimer from Uproer who is one of those people who just digs in and gets it done. She inspires me every day and I'm so happy to work with her. And JY from Yoghurt Digital. She is one of the most confident people I've ever worked with and she knows her stuff and is one of my biggest inspirations.
Finally, what empowers you to be the brilliant woman you are?
Whatever you do, do it 100%. I represented Australia in Judo for a number of years and something I constantly heard there was "don't half-do anything, you'll end up flat on your back (losing)". The same applies to SEO.
Give every task 100% of your expertise, give every call 100% of your attention, and bring 100% of yourself to every moment.
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Thanks Jessica for a truly insightful interview, you can connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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